For all this talk about his completion rate and suppossed drop in accuracy...is there any mention that the wind was blowing 20 mph during that last game? Many of you don't live around here, trust me it was windy as hell that Sunday. Friends of mine were at that game and they couldn't believe how windy it was. If the writer is talking about the entire season in general...does he consider the fact that he lost his best weapon that had the largest wing spand by far? Does he mention that he also lost his other 45 million dollar tight end for much of the season as well? Does he mention that Welker's recieving radius is absurdly small? Does he mention that Lloyd can't seperate, get deep, or catch a ball in traffic? Or is there any mention to the fact that he played all but one game this year outside?

I'm sure Brady will be dropping off as a player as he gets older, but he did throw for close to 5000 yards and 30 something touchdowns. His QB rating was top notch and his completion percentage was damn good too. He was playing behind an offensive line that was learning their way as well. The guy seems to keep himself in really good shape - he still moves around the pocket really well. I could care less that he can't run for first downs...he is slow...always has been. For much of this seaon he was being discussed as the league MVP and we are talking about him falling off??

His 34 TD passes have been met or exceeded 30 times in NFL history. I'm sure thousands of NFL QBs through the years only wish their best was nearly as good as Brady's "decline".

In 11 full seasons Brady just put up his 2nd best INT%, 4th best TD total, 4th best passer rating and 2nd best Y/G. Right, he's in steep decline. LMAO@U

I don't think people are saying he is in sharp decline. I said it is crazy to think at any professional athlete is not on the downward side of their career at age 36.

I like the stats you picked. TD total and Y/G are more functions of how many passes the Patriots throw. You failed to mention that he had the most attempts of his career this season. That is completion percentage and yards per attempt were his worst since 2006.

I still think that Brady has three or four Super Bowl winning capable years in him if they can sort out the rest of the coaches and team, but to try to pretend like he is still in his prime is foolish.

I like the stats you picked. TD total and Y/G are more functions of how many passes the Patriots throw. You failed to mention that he had the most attempts of his career this season. That is completion percentage and yards per attempt were his worst since 2006.

His TD% was the 5th best of his career. Is that better for you than TD total?

I like the stats you picked. His completion % was within a fraction of his career average - (7 passes out of 1000 difference, or less than 1 pass in a hundred).

I think noting the 4th best passer rating of his career pretty much admonishes your attempt to portray the stats chosen as bias.

Obviously the magnitude of accomplishment in these matters is measured by both quality and quantity.

I like the stats you picked. TD total and Y/G are more functions of how many passes the Patriots throw. You failed to mention that he had the most attempts of his career this season. That is completion percentage and yards per attempt were his worst since 2006.

His TD% was the 5th best of his career. Is that better for you than TD total?

I like the stats you picked. His completion % was within a fraction of his career average - (7 passes out of 1000 difference, or less than 1 pass in a hundred).

I think noting the 4th best passer rating of his career pretty much admonishes your attempt to portray the stats chosen as bias.

Obviously the magnitude of accomplishment in these matters is measured by both quality and quantity.

4th and 5th best of an 11 year career puts them closer to the middle than the top of his career. Passer rating, yards per attempt, TDs (both % and total) and completion % all peaked in 2007. That was six years ago. You do realize that some of his numbers changed dramatically between 2004 and 2006 because of the differences in the Weis and McDaniels offense. In 2004, the last year of the Weis offense the Patriots were 22nd in pass attempts per game at 29.4. This year they were 4th at 40.8. In some ways, there are two versions of Brady the 2001-2004 Brady and the post 2007 Brady (I think of '05 and '06 as the lost years).

Are you ignoring the part where I am saying that I still think is more than good enough to win the Super Bowl if they can figure out the other issues the team has? I am just not fooling myself into thinking that a 36 year-old QB is going to do what a 30 year-old QB did.

How many QBs in the NFL today wish they were in "decline" like Brady was last year as Joyner implies with his pick and choose stats? I'd say a lot. It has been said, give Brady a receiver corps like Manning had, like Flacco has today, his career stats would be lights out. But, early in his career, the Patriots offense did not center around him like the Colts did with Manning. Now with a running attack, with possible additions of "real" WRs next year and healthy TEs, 2013 could be a big year for him and the Pats.

How many QBs in the NFL today wish they were in "decline" like Brady was last year as Joyner implies with his pick and choose stats? I'd say a lot. It has been said, give Brady a receiver corps like Manning had, like Flacco has today, his career stats would be lights out. But, early in his career, the Patriots offense did not center around him like the Colts did with Manning. Now with a running attack, with possible additions of "real" WRs next year and healthy TEs, 2013 could be a big year for him and the Pats.

I agree that his decline is better than most QBs in their prime. The funny thing about him need a better receiving crew is that going into this season all I heard about was all the "weapons" Brady had (Welker, Gronk, Hernandez, Lloyd, Ridley, Vereen, Woodhead). I agree that they need a better actual WR group, but I tried telling people were over rating a lot of these guys.

Gronk is the one guy who I think is not overhyped. When Gronk was out and Welker, Hernandez and Lloyd, could not step up and fill the void. Welker couldn't catch and Lloyd and Hernandez (still to me the most overrating player on the team) couldn't even get themselves open.

Even the running game suffered without Gronk in there. I saw a stat that the yards per carry fell about a yard after he was injured.

I like the stats you picked. TD total and Y/G are more functions of how many passes the Patriots throw. You failed to mention that he had the most attempts of his career this season. That is completion percentage and yards per attempt were his worst since 2006.

His TD% was the 5th best of his career. Is that better for you than TD total?

I like the stats you picked. His completion % was within a fraction of his career average - (7 passes out of 1000 difference, or less than 1 pass in a hundred).

I think noting the 4th best passer rating of his career pretty much admonishes your attempt to portray the stats chosen as bias.

Obviously the magnitude of accomplishment in these matters is measured by both quality and quantity.

4th and 5th best of an 11 year career puts them closer to the middle than the top of his career. Passer rating, yards per attempt, TDs (both % and total) and completion % all peaked in 2007. That was six years ago. You do realize that some of his numbers changed dramatically between 2004 and 2006 because of the differences in the Weis and McDaniels offense. In 2004, the last year of the Weis offense the Patriots were 22nd in pass attempts per game at 29.4. This year they were 4th at 40.8. In some ways, there are two versions of Brady the 2001-2004 Brady and the post 2007 Brady (I think of '05 and '06 as the lost years).

Are you ignoring the part where I am saying that I still think is more than good enough to win the Super Bowl if they can figure out the other issues the team has? I am just not fooling myself into thinking that a 36 year-old QB is going to do what a 30 year-old QB did.

It is unprovable to show Brady has lost anything. But it is inevitable that he will. Whether this year's career typical numbers signal a dropping off is simply speculation and cannot evince convincing substance.

The mediocre team around him will certainly be hard pressed to improve enough, soon enough, to make the difference before he does actually drop off.

He's thrown picks in two of our three Super Bowl wins...one of those picks absolutely killed a scoring drive and was totally stupid. Yet no one cared then because we won, and really no one should of cared because he was going up against a good team and he was the reason why we were in such an important game to begin with.

The differene between then and now, is that we had a defense then..we don't now...haven't had one in some time. Belichick was asked a week before the Raven's game if Brady was a better quarterback now than he was when we were winning those Super Bowls - he said yes, no doubt. He also said there was no other quarterback he'd rather have. I believe him.